Victory at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #5) - C.M. Stunich Page 0,91

son’s head. “We just want to meet with him. We know he’s short on money, too, so we’ll make it worth his while.”

David adjusts his tie again, clearly uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation. I catch onto his nervousness and take a step forward, reaching out to put my hand on his upper arm. He flinches, but he lets me touch him.

“How close are you to losing your place here?” I ask, and David’s face pales even further. “What if we made it worth your while, too? Gave you some tuition money?”

“I’m almost twenty-thousand short,” David murmurs as Mack frowns and then drops his attention to where my hand rests on his boyfriend’s arm. He clearly isn’t a fan of me and David sleeping together either. I make sure to drop my hand by my side. “Can you do that?”

Last I checked with Oscar, Havoc had fifty grand in our account. What we have left now, I’m not sure, but probably not a lot. Nobody else is feeding us or buying gas for our cars or paying rent. Nobody else is paying for Heather and Kara and Ashley to enroll here or buying them their expensive uniforms.

“We can do it,” Vic replies easily, no hesitation. I wonder if there are other assets to be liquidated? Or if Havoc, like always, is just good at playing on so many levels that they’ve got extra cash squirreled away in other places. “Twenty for you, twenty for your dad. All you have to do is get us a meeting in a public place and make sure he shows up.”

“Done,” David says, eagerness coloring his voice as he looks back at Mack in a way that says he’d do anything to stay here with his man. Hey, I get it. I’d do the same: attend this horrid prep school for Vic just so he can get his diploma. Love is never easy, is it? There’s a bit of a pause before he adds, “are you planning on killing him?”

“If we were …?” Aaron starts as Vic makes a choking laugh that causes goose bumps to rise on both of my arms.

“I’d say … karma?” David suggests, face darkening as I think about what Aaron told me, how David basically admitted to being abused by his father. And then Victor with Ophelia. Penelope and the Kushners via Pam and Neil. Everything is connected. My list, my revenge, my boys, this city. The world is nothing if not a dangerous web. Pluck the wrong strand and the spider finds you before you get a chance to untangle yourself. “Anyway, just … be cautious. Ophelia broke up with him and moved out last week. He’d been planning on marrying her, too, so … he’s a little salty.” David swallows a lump in his throat, letting me know that Tom’s idea of saltiness is a bit more extreme than some bitter remarks and a deep-set frown.

“Ophelia broke up with him, huh?” Vic asks, rubbing at his chin. “Interesting. That must mean she has a much better prospect in mind. Say, Maxwell Barrasso?”

“Oh, they’re fucking for sure,” Mack agrees, giving Vic an appreciative once-over and then flicking his eyes over to me as if to say just lookin’, girl. “Ophelia met Maxwell through Tom and it’s been downhill ever since.”

“Aw, poor baby,” Vic murmurs, lighting up another cigarette. “So, he’s broke and dumped both, huh? You think he’ll agree to meet with us—even with the risk of the GMP?”

“He’ll do it,” David says, eyeing me skeptically, like he wonders what the hell I’m up to with this crew. Or maybe he’s just wondering why he ever agreed to hook up with me, considering I’ve been a Havoc Girl in my heart all along. “He needs the money too badly to say no.”

Victor nods again and then digs a card out of his pocket that he passes over to David.

“He meets us here, or it’s no deal. He’s also got a three-minute window of time in which to show up. If he’s late, we’ll kill him. Understood?”

David nods at Vic’s harsh words, plastering his body against the wall as Mack strokes his arm in solidarity.

“Boys,” Vic says, nodding with his head in Trinity’s direction. “Wife?” Victor offers me his arm, and I take it, allowing him to lead me away from David and Mack and toward his faux fiancée—a spot that I once held before becoming his wife. But Trinity will be nothing near what I was to Victor.